Chocolate Fudge Cake

Little Man's father's birthday was the other day, and since I was tethered to the house to monitor the remodeling operation, I decided to try my hand at a chocolate fudge cake. After spending way too long looking on the internet and poking through my recipes and cook books, I decided on these two recipes, taken from allrecipes.com. The result was AWESOME, if I do say so myself.

Black Chocolate Cake submitted by Jeanie Bean
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsps baking soda
2 tsps baking powder
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I used especially dark dutch style)
1 pinch salt
2/3 cup shortening
2 cups boiling water ( I used 1 cup water and 1 cup coffee)
2 eggs beaten
2 tsps vanilla

1. Sift together dry ingredients
2. Melt shortening in boiling water, then stir it into the dry ingredients. Beat in eggs, then stir in vanilla.
3. Pour into a greased and floured pan.

The recipe calls for a 9 x 13 pan with 30 minutes cooking time at 350 degrees.
In the review section, someone said two 9" round pans took 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Another reviewer said two 8" round pans took around 36 minutes at 350 degrees.

I used a Wilton 8" round, 3" deep pan and cooked it at 325 degrees for 57 minutes.


Caroline's Chocolate fudge Frosting submitted by Carrie Reynolds.

1/2 cup butter
3 (1 oz) squares unsweetened chocolate
1 pound confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk

Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave or double boiler. Combine confect sugar, vanilla and 1/2 cup of the milk. Add the melted chocolate mixture. Add remaining milk as needed.

Allow to stand until spreadable. (Frosting will thicken as it cools.)

My variation: (sorta kinda half again as much)

I used 3/4 cups butter, 5 squares of chocolate, 1 1/2 lbs of confect sugar, 2 tsps vanilla, and about 3/4 cups of a combination of milk and half & half. The consistency was wonderful and it was enough to do the 3 layers I cut the cake into, with some to spare for decorating.